American Apparel
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Born in a little dorm room, American Apparel, a clothing company, was one of the favorites of the time. Unfortunately, now we cannot say the same thing about the company. With offensive advertisement, low-quality expensive products, and a competitive market, they are now failing. Even though they are failing they have many things that they can do for a fresh start.
American Apparel has always been a company with unique advertisements. However, being unique does not change the fact that they are offensive. They have always used their own workers in sexual advertisements. Using nudity in advertisements is a controversial thing. For some viewers, it might seem okay but others might get offended from it. Using nudity in advertisements had a negative response to American Apparel. These advertisements that showed nude men and woman were one of the reasons why the company did not have a good standing in the market. Most of these advertisements that included nudity were banned, which also affected the company negatively.
If the advertisements were less controversial and included less nudity, it could positively influence the company. They could try to make an advertisement according to the age group that their company was targeting instead of showing controversial advertisements. The problem was that their consumers were younger people and the nudity of their advertisements was not appropriate for that audience. Since it would be harder for them to change the market for their customers, adjusting their advertisements for their market would work better for them. The best solution would be to keep the uniqueness of using employees in their advertisements but with less inappropriate images, which would work out better for them.
American Apparel is known for being an expensive brand in comparison to other brands of the same quality. Since their start, they have always had sold low-quality products for high prices. They used the excuse of having American-made products to sell their products for high prices. This explanation does not match the quality of the products. By looking at the online shopping site of American Apparel we can see the prices clearly. For example, a single pin is sold for $10, which is expensive compared to other products in the market. A multicolored hoodie is sold for $48 where you can find the same for $19.99 at H&M’s Divided line. Teenagers who are mostly interested in these kinds of products would prefer H&M because of it the cheaper alternative. American Apparel has an image of a high-priced brand while H&M has an image of a low-priced brand.
Even though they sell their products in other countries, American Apparel is a unique company that produces its products locally in the United States. This is a big reason for their products being more expensive. Having low-quality products and selling them for higher prices was not successful for them. With huge opponents in the market like Forever 21 that sell low-quality products for lower prices, American Apparel cannot compete. Producing only in America makes them unique and helps their image, but it does not mean that they can sell their products for unreasonable prices.
As said before, the market is very competitive. Brands like Forever